Headphone jack on a laptop is still needed by audio/video pros. But toslink? Even consumer grade hardware has abandoned that. I can bet a majority of MBP users didn't even know that feature existed.
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New MacBook Pro Models Lack Optical Audio Out via Headphone Jack
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Headphone jack on a laptop is still needed by audio/video pros. But toslink? Even consumer grade hardware has abandoned that. I can bet a majority of MBP users didn't even know that feature existed.
When queried about the removal, Apple said the feature was dropped due to a lack of customers using the functionality, noting that "plenty of USB-C zero-latency professional peripherals are available now, or coming very soon" with optical audio out connectivity.
I don't actually believe this - are they actually in touch any longer with what customers do with their Macs, beside 'look at them'?
I have a feeling that my mid 2015 15" rMBP is the best Pro Macbook today. I got same performance, ALL THE CRITICAL ports, 16GB and more is nit possible today, etc. And no mickey mouse bar!
I get that. But why remove it? What's the benefit of removing it for consumers?
I could understand if it helped kept cost down but that obviously isn't the case. Just leave it for who uses it and who doesn't would continue to not know its there.
Steve Jobs Describing the Apple Of Today :
I think that I understand it now pretty well, he said.
What happens is like with John Sculley(Today's Tim Cook & J.Ivy). John came from PepsiCo(some silly company who just care about building thin products and nothing else). They at most would change their products once every ten years(Today's Macs). I mean, to them a new product was like a new size of a bottle, right?.
If you were a product person you couldn’t change the course of that company very much.
So, who influenced the success of PepsiCo? The sales and marketing people!
Therefore they were the ones who got promoted. Therefore they were the ones who ran the company.
Well, for PepsicCo that might have been okay.
But – it turns out that the same thing can happen in technology companies that get monopolies – like oh…Mnnn IBM and Xerox(Today's Apple). If you were a product person at IBM or Xerox(Today's Apple) – so you make a better copier or computer? So what?
When you have a monopoly market share, the company is not any more successful.
So the people that can make a company more successful are sales and marketing people(Tim Cook & Ivy). And they end up running the companies. And the product people get driven out of decision making forums. And the companies forget what it means to make great products.
So the product sensibility and the product genius, that brought them to that monopolistic position, gets rotted out by people running this companies who have no conception of a good product versus a bad product.
They have no conception of the craftsmanship(Oh Tim Cook & J.Ivy) that is required to take a good idea and turn it in to a good product.
And they really have no feeling in their hearts usually about wanting to really help the customers.
So, that’s what happened at Xerox. (Today's Apple)
I think that I understand it now pretty well, he said.
What happens is like with John Sculley(Today's Tim Cook & J.Ivy). John came from PepsiCo(some silly company who just care about building thin products and nothing else). They at most would change their products once every ten years(Today's Macs). I mean, to them a new product was like a new size of a bottle, right?.
If you were a product person you couldn’t change the course of that company very much.
So, who influenced the success of PepsiCo? The sales and marketing people!
Therefore they were the ones who got promoted. Therefore they were the ones who ran the company.
Well, for PepsicCo that might have been okay.
But – it turns out that the same thing can happen in technology companies that get monopolies – like oh…Mnnn IBM and Xerox(Today's Apple). If you were a product person at IBM or Xerox(Today's Apple) – so you make a better copier or computer? So what?
When you have a monopoly market share, the company is not any more successful.
So the people that can make a company more successful are sales and marketing people(Tim Cook & Ivy). And they end up running the companies. And the product people get driven out of decision making forums. And the companies forget what it means to make great products.
So the product sensibility and the product genius, that brought them to that monopolistic position, gets rotted out by people running this companies who have no conception of a good product versus a bad product.
They have no conception of the craftsmanship(Oh Tim Cook & J.Ivy) that is required to take a good idea and turn it in to a good product.
And they really have no feeling in their hearts usually about wanting to really help the customers.
So, that’s what happened at Xerox. (Today's Apple)
Yes, that's probably why they got rid of the functionality - no one uses it.
Sorry for my fanboyism everyone. Everything Apple does these days is wrong, I should know better.
Of course it's not there. It's the Pro model! What are Apple playing at?
I bet the next model of the Macbook Pro has no ports or battery and it has to be plugged into the mains via a power supply that plugs into a dongle, which plugs into a voltage converter which connects to a power generator via the 12v input on your car!
Apple Car
I bet the next model of the Macbook Pro has no ports or battery and it has to be plugged into the mains via a power supply that plugs into a dongle, which plugs into a voltage converter which connects to a power generator via the 12v input on your car!
Apple Car
I still use the optical out on my Mac Mini 2009 - EVERY DAY. Food for thought.
MagSafe is / was great, but I (and again, this is for me and can see everyone's opinion on this) would rather have a port on each side that can charge over 1 MagSafe. There are some adapters that can give you a "MagSafe" like feel, (at least with the MacBook), it's just not for me to use an adapter for this purpose.
I have not used it but I know people who do.
The real question is why Apple removed this function and what did this removal accomplish? Why not keep this functionality? How did its removal benefit the end user?
That's counter intuitive. The more you remove, the more you limit the appeal. If the MBP had 2 or 3 more different ports that's 2 or 3 less arguments against the product. Apple's rationale is probably influenced by how much they can remove to facilitate their "thinner" mandate while affecting the least amount of customers. Unfortunately for those edge case users, they're going to be the most affected.
I would argue in your favor, but I would say that the people that look at these forums are not the typical users. I think we (unfortunately) could be the minority.
For what? Gently asking out of curiosity.
I said that before because in my own situation (my professional environment happens to be the post-production world), as it is for many others, the Mac's digital out is/was often seen as a superfluous extra.
"Why would you use a PC? No seriously, why would you use a PC?"
Slightly misquoted Tim Cook.
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The lifecycle of (quality) audio system components (receivers, DACs, amplifiers) is many, many years (think decades).
The point is: why remove functionality when the benefit of doing so is close to 0 ?
I never ever in my life used garageband and I dont know nor did I hear of a person who did. Does it mean Apple should remove the software? If at least some people use it/rely on it, let them have this value. Why so many people seem obsessed by removing things other people find useful? Does it make them feel happy simply because something they did not even register before is now removed?
Maybe I am the weird one, but I simply don't get this "remove everything" / kill choice attitude.
I do not use it, and have 0 qualms with Apple removing it. I'm not looking to buy a machine for someone I know, they can go with a windows laptop!
You must have been the school yard bully--do what I say and don't argue because this is the way it is, like it or not. Sorry, but your words are nothing short of abrasive. I appreciate thoughtful discussion; perhaps you could try thinking instead of setting up straw men.
For me, this falls under the same category as removing the floppy drive, or removing the cd drive. Old technology that I don’t care about. I can appreciate that some do, however I think a lot here (maybe not you) are making a very big deal over something they’ve never used and did not even know existed.
I feel the same way about the move to USB-C. One cable to eventually connect everything? YES! No more USB-A, Mini-DP, HDMI, Power. It’s a painful transition for some, but it’ll eventually be forgotten.
So much for consideration of your neighbor.
Look, its removal doesn't affect me but your attitude stinks. If you were really part of the Apple community you would care about the effect of Apple's decisions on others. When we lose users, we lose. Period.
What next? It secretly runs Windows but not MacOS
Obviously thats not the case because if it did, you'd have proper OpenGL and TB3 support ;-)